"Aiden, are you okay? Hey, give me some space. Being a journalist doesn't mean to intrude in someone's place like this. Get away from him a bit."
A loud voice struck everyone.
The reporter's gazes landed on Wade as they moved away. Seeing a bulky man with sharp expressions coming their way, they naturally moved away.
He looked angry and no one wanted to deal with someone like that.
"Aiden has a very scary bodyguard."
Someone muttered in the back and Wade heard it. He just gave a glare to the guy who had said that and reached Aiden.
"I was calling you but you were already busy with someone else."
"Yeah, Ava. Anyway, let's talk inside."
Aiden said, knowing that there were still cameras around and it wasn't wise to talk here. They tried to walk inside amidst being surrounded by reporters and cameramen.
It seemed like the reporters wanted to try one last time to get something out of Aiden and one of them, a bit bulkier reporter who looked like a bully from a movie, was the one with the loudest voice.
"You can wait a while and give us a few answers you know. Don't you think that will be a bit nice? Or are you really a molester who's too ashamed to show his face?"
Saying that, the reporter put a hand on Aiden's shoulder and tried to pull him back. It was then that something clicked inside of Aiden's head. He had heard what the reporter had said and he wasn't pleased.
Anger surged inside of him and a personality that he had always suppressed inside of him started to come out. A personality that he didn't like but the one that was best for people like the reporter.
'Kai.'
He thought in his mind and when he turned back, a smile was on his face and his eyes looked dead. A smiling face and dead eyes were the combo that could scare anyone off and with the sudden change of atmosphere around Aiden, the reporter widened his eyes.
He took a few steps back in fear.
"If you want an answer, learn how to show respect first."
After saying that, Aiden walked inside of his office. Outside, no one spoke a word. They all looked at the reporter who stood like a stone, like he was petrified.
"What just happened?" A cameraman asked as he looked at the reporter who was still shaking.
"I don't know. It's the first time I have seen Aiden being so angry."
***
As Aiden was dealing with the reporters, more and more people who knew him were finding out about the news.
Slowly, it was reaching every corner of America.
Uncle Sam was handling his customers in the restaurant when he got to know about the news.
Actually, it was from one of his customers.
"Hey, Sam, get my usual order."
"Sure. Go sit down. There's a spot empty for you right there."
Uncle Sam pointed at the seat in the corner that was empty and the customer that was a regular nodded his head. But before the customer could take his seat, he stopped in his tracks and looked back.
"Sam, did you hear the news?"
He asked and Uncle Sam looked at him in surprise.
"What news? There's tons of news daily and I don't know which one you are talking about. You need to narrow it down."
"About your nephew?"
"What about Aiden?"
When Uncle Sam said that, the customer was that he knew nothing about what type of mess Aiden was in right now.
"Just check any entertainment news channel. It's all over. I don't know if it's true as every time I talked to Aiden, he looked like a nice guy."
The customer said and took his seat while Uncle Sam stood there, confused. He picked up the TV remote and changed channels. On one of the entertainment channels, the anchor was talking about Aiden.
[Aiden Silvereye who was accused hours ago by Katie Brooks of harassment was found in front of his office. He had not said anything about the accusations against him but he looked visibly disturbed. Here are some photos we got...]
'What is going on...?'
Uncle Sam thought, looking at the news.
***
In the Titan studios office, the marketing team of [Hex - Part 1] was messed up after the news of the accusation came up. Just with one news, every plan of theirs was in gutter.
They were expecting an opening of at least 40 million dollars but now, the opening figures in their mind were going less and less. From 40 to 35 to 20.
There was a massive drop in their estimations.
In today's age, the impact of something like MeToo was huge and it would impact career's and projects that were associated with that person until unless the project was too big to fail which [Hex - Part 1] wasn't.
"What should we do now? The project is doomed."
"How can something like this come up just days before the release? Is any other studio doing it?"
"Is it true? We can salvage it if it's just an accusation somehow but currently, the public sentiment is with Katie Brooks."
"Hey, someone contact the head. We can't operate on our own. There's no way we could handle this."
"Also, call Aiden's assistant. We need to know whether this is true or not. We need to address it somehow. Leaving it be would only harm us as people would think of it as Aiden accepting the crime."
"I just hope the movie isn't a flop because of this."
All around the room, people looked worried and some even had those hopeless eyes like nothing could be done to make the situation a bit better. One might say that there was a bit of exaggeration in their reactions but the news has only broken out and it hasn't set in yet.
Moreover, this was the project that they were working on for a long time. It had been months since the marketing team had been assembled to handle it and if it fails just because of one man, then no one would be happy.
All in all, it was just a depressing situation.
***
In Aiden's office, he was sitting down on a table and trying to calm himself down. The effect of using Kai's personality had made him temporarily out of energy and he had to drink two bottles of water to feel alive again.
He was sure that the reporter would get nightmares of Kai tonight but he wasn't remorseful about it. He deserved it in his mind.
After all, there was a limit to anything.
"Aiden, do you have any idea of why Katie did it?"
Wade asked after a while. Aiden raised his head up and saw that everyone in the room was looking at him.
Most of his team was here and those who weren't here like Sasha and Tom were handling the calls that they were getting from various people.
"I have a few clues but I think Franco Li is the one who's pulling the strings. Katie is in SGA."
"Franco Li?"
Wade asked and Aiden nodded his head. Only he was the one who would plan something like this.
"That bastard. I knew he would do something like this but why is Katie helping him?" He punched the table in anger and asked.
"Probably because of the offer that Franco gave me. He probably gave the same offer to Katie and you do know that her career isn't really moving."
Aiden said as he connected dots in his mind.
After [30 days of Happiness], Katie's career had gone nowhere. Due to the success of the indie movie, her former agency had made her act in several other indie projects and all of them have failed.
She didn't even win any awards for that as no one really watched them.
She tried to do other commercial movies but never got a significant role. On the other hand, Aiden's career was moving up every few months.
If Katie was finding it hard to climb each step of the stair, Aiden was in a lift. At least it would have looked like that from her perspective.
'An offer of making her a Global star would have made her betray me. Desperation brings out the ugly side of humans.'
Aiden thought in his mind.
"What are we going to do now? Franco Li is in the shadows for this, so we can't take him on directly. I already contacted the lawyers and they would handle this matter on the legal side. But the media perception has become extremely negative towards you."
Wade said and looked worried. Aiden also frowned. All this had happened when he was least expecting it.
But he needed to fight back.
"First, let's give out an official statement and I need to make my stand clear that I did nothing and it's better if I talk about it in detail and come clean. After all, what Katie had said is baseless and there's no proof—"
"Aiden, we got more bad news!"
As Aiden was talking, Tom suddenly came out from the other room with his laptop in his hand. Everyone looked at him and wondered what had happened now.
"What happened?"
"Another news story about you broke out."
Tom said and showed everyone his laptop. They all read the news displayed on it.
<Few people from the crew of [30 days of Happiness] have come out, saying that they witnessed Aiden Silvereye harassing Katie Brooks! This is another chapter in this recent scandal.>
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